Unexpected Consequences
by Polki
Summary: Hermione suddenly finds herself thirty years in the past, not by choice. But once you start meddling, nothing can be the same as it was the first time around. Every benefit has a consequence, and that includes knowledge of the future.


Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not my bitch.

Chapter I

I heard a clinking noise and felt myself slip out of sleep. I wasn't in my bed or favorite armchair – in fact, my head was leaning a cold vibrating surface...

Death Eaters? My heart pounded for a second as I deliberately kept my eyes closed. No, I wasn't bound in any way, and a subtle movement showed that my wand was in my robe's inside pocket. Also, I had a book on my lap; a normal occurrence. No, this was just a regular sleep. Wait... I was taking the Express up to Hogwarts this year! That's right, I'd be overseeing the house elves during the start of term.

I opened my eyes, squinting slightly from the mid-morning sun shining in through the window. I gave a nod to the boy across from me. "Mr. Longbottom," I said politely. He must have entered the cabin while I was asleep. My voice was still hoarse from sleep and it came out more high-pitched than usual.

"Er, Her- um, I mean Granger? Ah, sorry if I woke you." He blushed and looked away, fiddling with the wand in his hand. He must have dropped it, creating the noise that woke me up.

Wasn't this nostalgic? First year I rode with Neville, now I was riding with his son for his first year. I politely ignored the slip of his tongue with my last name.

"Perhaps you should be getting into your robes?" The question came out more as a statement, and the boy was quick to jump up, pull his suitcase down (knocking down an assortment of suitcases and coats in the process) and got out his robes. After another minute of shoving everything above our heads again (really, he'd just have to take everything down once more to put his every-day clothes away) he left the cabin for the bathroom.

I gave a small smile. Cypress Longbottom was such a sweet boy like his mother, but sometimes he was just as clumsy as his father. I never noticed how much he looked like him, but from the brief meeting I concluded the resemblance was the same as James and Harry. I gave one last look at the closing door before looking down at the book on my lap. "'Hogwarts, A History,' huh?" I said fondly and glanced down at the cover. I must have grabbed the wrong edition when I left home since the cover was different from the most recent one. Sure enough, I opened to the first few pages and looked at the current teacher roster. "Headmaster Dumbledore? This sure _is_ old." I flipped back to the cover and my eyebrows raised. It was from 1991, _my_ first year of Hogwarts. Where did I get one in such good condition?

I ran a hand through my hair, a habit when trying to figure out the answer to something, and then stopped suddenly. My hair, which had become perhaps not _tame_ but at least manageable since after puberty, was now a complete rat's nest!

After untangling my hand, I quickly pulled out my wand from my pocket and froze. The familiar vines were there, but it couldn't be my wand. _My_ wand had all the sheen worn off from using it during the years at Hogwarts and the war, and some small scratches and dents from when the Snatchers had taken it for a bit. _This_ wand was pristine and new. The vines looked as if they'd never been touched and worn down, and it still gleamed as if it'd been recently varnished. This couldn't be my wand, well, perhaps it could have been thirty years ago, but certainly not now... could it?

I looked down at myself for the first time. I was wearing Hogwarts robes with the neutral white coloring for the tie and the edges of the robes that first years wore. Also, I was much smaller than I remembered

Before my thoughts could travel further Cypress – or rather Neville – walked in again with a dejected look on his face. "I've lost Trevor!"

I raised my shiny new wand for the summoning charm, but then thought better. This was when I had met Harry and Ron, future best friend and husband respectively. Well, maybe husband was a bit creepy thinking that way now. He was only eleven after all. "Let's go look for him, shall we?"

Neville blushed again but stood up. We decided to split up – Neville going to the right and I left. I had to look in every window, but eventually found the compartment with the two other members of the trio. I opened the door quickly, same as before and said "A boy named Neville's lost his toad. Have either of you two seen it?"

Then I looked at them both closely, and just couldn't get over how _small_ they were. Ron with the dirt on the tip of his nose, which now looked cute rather than gross, and Harry with his tiny little face. They'd grow into themselves eventually for sure, but for now they were cute little eleven-year-olds.

"No we haven't," Harry said at last with a small smile.

"Oh, well that's alright. I'm Hermione Granger," I said with a responding smile after a few seconds of silence.

"Ron Weasley," the redhead finally spoke. There was affection for him, but no attraction. That's good. It'd be very, very wrong to have trysts with a boy who hadn't even hit puberty yet, no matter how old I may be in body.

"Harry Potter."

Instead of the fanfare I'd given before, I simply nodded at Harry, knowing he didn't like being the center of attention or noticed for his scar. Still, he looked very surprised as he not-so-subtly smoothed the hair over his forehead even as I turned my attention back to Ron. "So, you two know what houses you think you'll be sorted into?" I asked, shutting the door softly even though I hadn't technically been invited in.

"Gryffindor I hope; it's where all my family's been. Harry'll probably be sorted there too. But if not, then anywhere but Slytherin. Imagine that!"

Harry nodded slowly. "I can't imagine you as a Slytherin, Ron."

"Not all people in Slytherin are bad," I said with a small frown. Even the git Malfoy switched sides in the end, which took a lot of courage, something not normally attributed to his house.

"Just like not all people in Gryffindor are good," Harry said with a sharp look in his eyes.

Before I could respond, Ron asked me "do you like Quidditch?"

I felt a bit dejected that they hadn't bothered to ask what house I thought I'd be sorted into, but that's 11-year-old boys for you. "No, actually I'm muggleborn."

"Wait, so you've never heard of Quidditch?!" Ron's eyes seemed about to pop out of his head.

I was about to correct him when Harry spoke up "Actually, I grew up in the muggle world too, so I don't know what it is either."

"Only the best sport ever!" Ron started going into a long and detailed explanation that I couldn't care less about. Neither made room for me so I nudged the sweets next to Ron over so I could sit.

Somewhere in the explanation he got to talking about his older brothers, which led to more talk of magic. "I tried turning Scabbars – that's my rat – yellow yesterday, but it didn't work."

"I heard your brothers, the twins, were troublemakers. Did one of them give it to you?"

Ron nodded glumly. "Yeah, George gave it to me. Bet he knew it was a dud."

Just then the door to the compartment slid open. Three boys entered, and I knew them very well. This didn't happen to me last time – then again, I'd left after only a few moments before. Harry across from me stiffened as Ron wrinkled his dirty nose.

"Is it true?" Malfoy said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," Harry said curtly while Ron looked at Crabbe and Goyle curiously.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle," Malfoy said carelessly. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough which sounded like it was hiding laughter.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasley's have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." Draco turned back to Harry as Ron's face became flush, making his freckles stand out more. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the _wrong_ sort." He gave me a glance, noted my narrowed eyes and turned back to Harry. "I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake. Surprisingly, Harry put on a smirk and took it. "Thanks, although I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself," he said coolly.

Draco looked conflicted, but soon schooled his features and simply responded "of course," with a smirk. As he dropped Harry's hand and Harry sat back down, he turned to me. "And who are _you?_"

"Hermione Granger, muggleborn as I know you're about to ask." I didn't bother holding out my hand for him to shake as I knew he wouldn't take it.

Draco wrinkled his nose. "You hang around with riffraff like these, Potter, and you're bound for trouble."

Ron stood up. I subtly pulled out my wand, getting it ready in case they actually wanted to fight. Not that it'd be much of a fight, an untrained first year against _me_. Maybe I shouldn't fight back, only protect Ron?

"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.

"Going to fight, are you?"

Ron was still holding his wand and lifted it up towards Malfoy. I looked over at Harry, who looked bored, which was very, very strange, however I noticed him subtly palm his wand. The three other Slytherins raised their wands as well.

Ron looked angry, but he clearly didn't know any spells. That meant it was up to me. I built up some power, in case they tried something.

"Flippen-"

"Expelliarmus!" I countered quickly

...nothing came out of my wand.

Draco's spell completed and hit Ron, pushed him back a few inches. It wasn't very impressive, but Draco still looked pleased.

"Expelliarmus," I said again frantically, giving my wand a stronger flick.

Draco smirked at me. "Mudbloods and blood traitors are useless, as you'll learn soon enough Potter." With that the three boys left the cabin.

"Gits," Ron spat, putting his wand away and sitting down. I noticed Harry let go of his wand.

Ron looked at me. "What was that spell you tried using, Hermione? Ex-something."

"Expelliarmus," I whispered and flicked my wand again. A pitiful red light finally appeared from the end, but fizzled out after only a few inches. I sat down carefully. "It's the disarming charm, used to cause the victim's wand to fly out of reach and blast him or her backwards."

"That would have been wicked," he said, face turning less red now that the danger was over, and he grinned dangerously. "We'll learn it at Hogwarts and get them back."

I didn't feel like telling him it was a second year charm. My head was abuzz. I couldn't do magic? No, that wasn't right. I managed a small light to appear. "Expelliarmus," I said again, producing the same small light as before. It was almost as if my magic was... blocked? No, I could feel it, rippling below my skin and ready for use. Sure, it wasn't as large a pool as I was used to, but certainly enough to pull off a simple disarming charm.

"Don't worry Hermione, I'm sure we'll learn all these spells at Hogwarts," Harry said to me. It didn't help. I should already _know_ these spells, I shouldn't have to relearn them!

The door opened once more, but this time is was Neville. "Oh, Hermione! Have you found Trevor, then?"

I looked away from his smile guiltily. Last time we'd come to the compartment together, but now it looked like I'd just ditched looking for his toad in favor of sitting here, and also ditched Neville. I didn't really mean to, but I couldn't not notice what this looked like.

"No, sorry," I said standing up. "We'd better get going; we're almost to Hogwarts. And you two better change into your robes."

"I'm sure you'll find your toad," Harry said as we left.

As we went back to our compartment, Neville only tripped over his feet once. Since we were both already changed I packed my book away and went to looking out the window. There was a lot to think about, and surprisingly how I got here wasn't my main concern. I'd researched time-travel extensively when I got my time turner and learned that you cannot go to the future from the past. Time didn't work like that. A bubble of sorrow surfaced at my lost family and friends, but I quickly compartmentalized it into the back of my mind. Now wasn't the time for that. Now was for figuring out how to fix my magic, and what I'd do from here. By being there when Malfoy met Ron and Harry I'd already changed the future, apparently a lot because I remembered the whole Harry-Malfoy exchange quite differently. However, how large of a butterfly effect these small changes make? I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, feeling a headache begin. Only time would tell.

A/N: Each chapter I'll do a fanfiction rec. This chapter's rec is Green Eyed Legend by sphinxs-legend.

Also, if you review, please give me suggestions to improve my writing.


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